My fourth evaluation question!

1. Evaluation Question 4
HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN TH3E CONSTRUCTION, RESEARCH
AND PLANNING, AND EVALUATION STAGES?

2.  Before I started college and studying media in it I had some kind of knowledge of
different technologies and a basic understanding of how they were used.
However, I was unaware of the importance and the way that these platforms can
influence a creator or brand. At A level studies my awareness and understanding
of these media technologies has grown tremendously throughout my research
and planning, constructions and evaluations of my products. I have created a list
of the various media technologies that I have used in this subject throughout my
time in A2 media.

3. Media Technologies Used
 Blogger
 Photoshop
 YouTube
 Facebook
 Microsoft Excel
 Microsoft Powerpoint
 Slideshare
 Microsoft Word
 Dafont
 Prezi
 Padlet
 WIX
 DSLR Camera
 Iphone
 Photo Studio Lighting
 Apple Macs
 PowToon

5. Blogger
 Blogger was the first media technology that I was introduced to in my media A level. I have used this website
throughout my studies to document my progress in research and planning, construction and evaluation. As it is
so simple to link numerous technologies to this site I have located all my work at blogger. Prior to A Level I had
very little understanding of blogger as it was not a site that I had previously encountered. As blogger is so user
friendly I was able to use the website with ease from the moment I signed up without any struggle at all
meaning I could edit and publish my own posts straight away. I have found the experience of this website very
enjoyable as I have complete control over its layout and flexibility. For example, I have tailored my blog to
follow my indie theme so that it can be easily associated to my products. This means that my blog is neat
looking and I can easily find more historic posts. Over the two years that I have used blogger the site has been
updated and this has made it easier and quicker to use. This site makes it easy for me to find a specific piece of
work due to the search bar at the top right of the website which can correlate searches with blog post titles. In
addition to this labels aid the website user in finding something specific, this feature is available for both the
creator and visitors of the website. This meant that I could easily spate my posts into different categories,
ultimately enabling a distinct difference between my research and planning, construction and evaluation posts.

6. Photoshop
 When it came to the construction of my print media products. Before college, I had very little skills when it came to
using photoshop as had rarely used the technology before. This meant that I had to educate myself on the ins and
outs of the programme, to do this I watched YouTube tutorials and experimented with a range. As I had a year of AS
before A2 it meant I had a year of additional knowledge of photoshop before this year meaning I could already
create products to a professional standard. As this is the programme that I have taken advantage of to create my
products I have became familiar with the different ways to use it. I regularly use the magic wand tool to remove
unwanted boarders and backgrounds from images, this ensures that my products reach the professional aesthetic
that I aim for. I additionally found the rubber tool useful in manipulating my images. Despite taking my images in a
professional studio there were still some parts of the lighting that I felt just did not fit the way I believed the image
should look. By using the rubber tool I was able to blend light in with the darkness of the background. I took a
screenshot of my colour scheme, which was chosen by my target audience and created a layer of these colours. This
meant that when I wanted to change the colour of something I was able to use the eyedropper tool to select the
exact shade that I craved. This will mean that my audience will be able to associate the individual products with the
entire brand with ease.

7. YouTube
 As I was already a avid user of YouTube before starting my blog I was well familiar with the ways I could use it. I had
already uploaded a couple of videos to YouTube and was aware of the simplicity of the uploading process by
clicking on the upload button at the top left of the websites homepage. By uploading the video to YouTube I am
able to embed the video onto my blogger. I used YouTube in my research and planning phase by looking at videos
of people whom may be interested in my magazine, I was also able to look videos of events in the region and view
which ones had the most popularity and finally I was able to watch videos about the North East getting a better
idea of the region.
 Within the process of creating my product I was also able to use YouTube. I watched videos explaining new ways
that I could use photoshop in simple step by step tutorials. This was very beneficial as I am still discovering
different techniques on photoshop myself. In conclusion I feel like the overall quality of my products have
improved because of these videos.
 In the evaluation process I was able to use the website again as I had the option of creating a pow toon and using
that animated way to evaluate my product or record myself talking about the product, both methods have a level
of professionalism to them and would give a more personal feel to my academic blog.

8. Social Media
 Throughout my work I have used various social media platforms in efforts to present my work and connect with
my audience. I have predominately used facebook in the research and planning area of my coursework. Through
Facebook I was able to connect to my target audience. I created a group of 30 users that I have chosen due to the
fact that they lived in the correct region and seemed to be a typical target audience member. I then proceeded to
ask them a range of questions regarding my products e.g. price of magazine, colour scheme, content etc. From
this group I discovered opinions and information on my target audience that I otherwise wouldn’t of been able to
discover any other way. From this information I was then able to tailor my products towards a typical target
audience member. Overall I found Facebook of huge importance when working through my research and
planning as it provided me with a lot of useful information which in turn aided me in creating a magazine that my
target consumers would be attracted to.
 When approaching the construction stage of my products I found it would be a critical selling factor that my
products had some kind of social presence in order for them to connect with fans and for me to be able to
market the product. As the primary target audience for the products was younger people whom are likely to take
a huge interest in social media I found that doing things like including social media logos of platforms such as
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter would make them more interested in my products and would gain me a larger
target audience due to the online presence. It also allows my target audience to keep up to date with my
magazine.

9. Microsoft Excel
 I applied the knowledge of excel that I had acquired during school to compose
some pie charts to easily present the data that I had correlated from my target
audience Facebook page and questionnaires. This meant That I was able to post
screenshots of this data collection onto my blog and refer back to them during my
creation process. These charts allowed me to quickly distinguish what my target
audience wanted to see the most within my products, therefore, allowing me to
create a product that my target audience would be happy to purchase.

10. Microsoft PowerPoint and SlideShare
 As part of the research and planning and evaluation stages, I enjoyed using slideshare to present as an
effective, professional tool which can be used simply. To create a slideshare I first had to create a regular
powerpoint on microsoft and then embed this onto the slideshare website in order for it to be accessed
online. The way that the content is then presented is detailed and still easy to read due to the availability of
being able to space out work meaning that different points can be on different slides losing the chance of
work looking cluttered. From here on I was able to embed my slide share onto my blog so that it can be
viewed as a presentation would be, at the bottom of each slide there are arrows making it easy to navigate
the technology.
 Another way in which I used microsoft powerpoint was when creating mood boards for my products design
and planning, it was simple to make a stylish looking mood board on powerpoint due to the ease in which
images can be dragged about and the shape tools on powerpoint making it easy to correlate work and
have a central focus to the mood board.

11. Microsoft Word
 As I am familiar with Microsoft Word I came to the conclusion that creating flat plans on this programme
would be the easiest and most efficient method as I knew Word possessed all the simple tools that were
needed to create the flatplans. I initially drew the flatplans using a variation of textboxes in a layout that I
envisoned my magazine would follow. These flatplans were useful in the creation process as I already had
an awareness of where I would ideally like each convention to be. This resulted in a neat first draft of my
products meaning I could improve other aspects other than layout.

12. Prezi
 The unique presenting method that prezi possesses was something that I felt was paramount in the
presentation of many pieces of my corsework. The technology allowed me to present and customise the
way in which I wanted my information to be formatted. Before taking A Level media I was not aware of
Prezi however, I soon became accustomed to the ways that the website worked and presented its
information. It was easy to learn how to use Prezi due to its easy layouts and set themes which are
customisable to suit my blog and products. I was easily able to embed my presentation onto my blog
through the HTML compose option on a blog post. I feel as though Prezi was a fun and creative way to
present information onto my blog.

13. Padlet
 Another website that I used to present work was Padlet, I mainly used this throughout the research and
planning stage of my coursework due to the ease of connecting an image to a text box and having them
separate from all the other pieces of writing on that page. I additionally found that the site was useful
during the deconstructions as I could break up significant parts of information into smaller more focused
areas. This meant that I was able to create a clear divide between the products and individual areas of
products that I was evaluating. This was useful when presenting and developing my research on
deconstructions and research and planning into a neat manner meaning that the information provided on
this technology was easily digestible.

14. WIX
 WIX was the technology that I used to create the website of my magazine, using WIX meant that I still had to
correlate the website to other products that I created. Before A2 I had never used WIX before nor had I even
heard of it. As I had no knowledge of WIX I felt that it was elementary for me to do research into it as one of my
products were going to be created using it. At first I did find it a struggle when I was using WIX as I had never
used a website within this field before. However, after playing around with the website, watching tutorials and
having a few attempts of creating the website I was finally able to navigate the site. I found that using the themes
provided by WIX useful as it gave me a ready template and idea of what my website could look like. Once I had
chosen a theme I then set out editing it to make it fit within the world of the products that I had already created, I
was easily able to add my own images to then website and replace existing stories with ones that were featured
within my magazine. I was also able to change the colour of aspects of the website and change the font used on
it, this created a flowing theme between all three of the products that I had created and giving my work a brand
image. This was a benefit within my creations as it meant that my audience would be able to quickly recognise
my products. Once I had posted my website it was very easy to go back and make changes to it as I was the
creator of the website all I had to do was find my published work on the WIX website and select the edit option.

15. DLSR Camera
 Within the construction process of my products I made use of a DLSR Camera to capture professional
looking images to be used within my products. I was already familiar with these types of cameras from
the photoshoot that I constructed at AS. This meant that I already knew the general rules on how to set
up and use the camera, adapting the IOS to suit the lighting of the photo studio Within the photo shoot I
used a canon camera, that I had rented from the college. I was familiar with the brand as I had used it last
academic year so it did not take much to get used to how to use the camera again. The use of the high
quality camera and my knowledge on how to operate the technology enabled me to create professional
looking photos.

16. Apple Macs
 Within the media studies lessons we were encouraged to use the apple computers which have aided
me in my research and planning, construction and evaluation process. As I do not have my own apple
mac I was unaware on the ways it could be used before starting college. However, as I did already have
an iPhone I quickly realised that the way the Mac was set out and the way it was used was very similar
to that of my phone, this meant that I did not initially fall behind nor did others whom had experience
on a mac race a head of me too much as I was able to learn how to use on and its features in a very
speedy manner.

17.  Overall, I strongly believe that the use of media technologies throughout my
research and planning, construction and evaluation process aided me in creating a
professional looking product that I can be proud of and one that can be easily
recognisable when trying to link it to other products. Without these online
computer technologies I would have found it difficult to create such professional
looking products aimed toward specific audiences. Therefore meaning that my
regional magazine would not have been as successful.